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THE IDEA:
http://www.duanestorey.com/2008/10/wordcamp-whistler/

IN SUMMARY:
Vancouver, BC is a hub for bloggers, developers and internet professionals. Many of us are also WordPress fans. Meanwhile, Whistler BC, just around 90 minutes from Vancouver, is one of the world’s nicest and most well-known winter destinations. Why not take advantage of the two? Join us for a weekend of WordPress workshops in beautiful Whistler Village, and skiing/snowboarding on the mountain.

FACEBOOK EVENT:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=32574477561

THE WIKI:
http://barcamp.org/wordcampwhistler

In the last two days I’ve been trying to get a lot of work done but in order to stay sane I’ve had to take some breaks. During those breaks I discovered a show called Dead Like Me. It was on the air a few years ago but was cancelled. However, since then a lot of people started petitions to get it back on the air, and I can see why. Apparently it did have really good ratings but there were some conflicts within the cast and crew from the start.

In any case, it’s a story of a girl, Georgia (George for short), who dies at the young age of 18 due to falling debree from a Russian space station (or in her case, a falling toilet seat). Not being good enough for heaven, or bad enough for hell, George is given the job of a grim reaper. Her job is to pull out the souls from people seconds before they die. According to the story described in the show, grim reapers have to free a certain number of souls before being able to move on themselves in their spiritual journey. In order to accomplish their work, they come back to Earth as the “undead,” having human bodies and human responsibilities, but limits on their participation in the world in terms of relationships, etc.

Watching the show got me thinking about the many ways that people die, ranging from peaceful to gruesome, stupid to heroic, and the similarities and differences between the death scenarios shown in Dead Like Me and the teachings of various religions. Despite the dark and grim appearance of the show, it actually gives a lot of hope and puts a lot of things in perspective for individuals to examine their lifestyle, relationships and priorities. I ended up watching a few episodes over the last two days and found it to be time well spent not just because of the laughs or the break from work but because the stories inspired introspection about my life and death.

Thinking about death does not always have to be about planning the scenario of your death. In fact, as outlined in many religious scriptures and in many plays, novels, movies and shows about death, you can hardly ever plan the time or circumstances of your death. However, what you can do is think about what decisions you’ll make and what steps you’ll take so that your life is so fruitful, rewarding, righteous and exemplary that death doesn’t worry you. What you can do is make the best of each day so that just like at the end of a memorable day with the family, or a deeply refreshing spiritual retreat, or a humbling experience of selfless service, you feel content and thankful, at the end of a good life you will feel quite the same.

According to a famous hymn in the the Sikh scriptures, the type of thoughts you have at the time of your death lead to the journey of your soul after your death. The hidden truth behind this statement is that your thoughts at the time of death are only the product of the thoughts throughout life. If your entire life was spent in obsession with your money, you will not suddenly think of spiritual union with the ultimate universal truth in your last minutes. You will probably think of your money. It’s no surprise then that the chorus of that hymn is “Dear sister, do not forget the nectar of truth, the Name of God.” Some people respond to this hymn with the complaint that meditation can’t be a full-time thing when we all have careers, families, etc. However the beauty of spirituality is that meditation is not a single time-frame practice, but a way of life, which can be attained while fulfilling daily responsibilities. Real spiritual people don’t practice righteousness on a holiday, or go to church on a Sunday, or remember God in the evening. They live and breath the truth throughout life in all situations and in doing so, they are also past the stage of struggle with life, or fear of death.

Here’s the first episode - this YouTube channel has about 11 episodes.

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Another related video is Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture: “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” The story behind this video (explained in the first two minutes) is also very inspiring.

Well folks, the count down has begun. 10 more days to go until Barack Obama becomes the president-elect of the United States.

I was going to write a long post but I’ve been writing at work all day so here’s a summary of some of my thoughts… or you could say “my talking points”…

- Canadians followed US elections more than its own, which is nothing new, but especially because of all of the drama. This is probably the most “drama” filled election in a generation.

- The Canadian election was a rip off for the entire country. It cost too much and happened too fast, resulting in record low voter turnout.

- The US is far more paranoid and intolerant of lesser known minorities than Canada. Crazy McCain Rally Lady: “He’s an Arab.” … McCain: “No ma’am he’s a decent man.”

- However Canada has its fair share of “silent” discrimination and we are a little in denial about the reality of Canadian society’s hidden stereotypes against certain demographics

- Canadians from visible minorities might be feeling a little envious that we haven’t had a PM from a visible minority and we might not for a while.

- The victory of Barack Obama is also symbolically important for many world countries.

- McCain rally craziness and the underlying fanatic racism in the US seriously threatens Obama’s safety

- If McCain wins, I’m moving to Canada! Oh wait, I already live in Canada, sweet.

- If Obama wins, I miiiiight consider traveling more often to the US… or not.

Hello Jello,

Last night I noticed that there are hundreds of WordPress groups on Facebook but nothing for residents of British Columbia. So I started a new one - please join it here and post your discussions, comments, photos, videos, etc.

We have had three successful WordPress events this year hosted by Tazzu in April, BlueFur in July, and Rebecca and Duane at Barcamp in September.

I contemplated for a while if we need another event. I certainly think we deserve a larger event - all of this year’s events have been single day over a few hours with an audience of about 100 people, whereas the “proper” WordCamp in San Francisco is a full conference over a few days with various sessions and a few hundred attendees. Perhaps instead of throwing another event out there I should talk with the three organizers of this year’s events and see if we can collectively do something on a larger scale next year. That might work.

What do you think? Please post here or in the group on Facebook.

Anyway back to work :)

-k.s.

Crazy (brilliant or stupid, I don’t know) idea of the day.

It would be cool if, similar to Greyhound, Translink vehicles (bus, skytrain, seybus) also did courier services. Most couriers can guarantee delivery in the same day, but not within 2 hours. Being able to drop off a letter at Surrey Central to be picked up at Waterfront in just an hour would be priceless.

A story in today’s Province newspaper explains that Jimmy and Tamala Lapointe’s laptop was stolen and along with it precious photographs of their baby Rykr which were not saved anywhere else. Hopefully the theives will  read this story and at least return the photographs.

Reading this story reminded me of a CNN Tech news clip I watched yesterday with tips on laptop security. There are many ways in which you can protect your laptop. The reporter said there is a 1 in 14 chance that your laptop will be stolen at some point in your life (not sure what that stat is based on but it seems plausible). I’ve embeded the news clip below, please check it out!

This story also speaks to the importance of photography backup. My grandfather always used to joke when I took photos with the digital camera and he called it the “dhokha camera” or “fraudulent camera” because he didn’t use a computer and once a photo was taken, he’d probably never see it. However, the point of photos is to enjoy and cherish memories - so if you don’t want to get them printed, there are many other options out there. For example, photo storage services like Flickr, Picasa, or a self-hosted Coppermine gallery on your website, or just burning all your photos onto CD’s or DVD’s. It’s always good to have a backup.

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Followup

A good post by Buzz Bishop about photo storage tools available online. “There are two rules about baby photos. 1) Back them up. 2) Back them up.” :)

Hey Everyone,

Some staff and management graciously volunteered and organized an Employee Appreciation Luncheon today at our company NewspaperDirect, where I’m celebrating the end of my “3 month probation” tomorrow (now I can get my eyes checked!), and in the raffle I won a pair of tickets to this Saturday’s Canucks game!

Rebecca Bollwitt (Miss604) is helping me make better use of the free prize by holding a silent auction tomorrow at Third Tuesday for the tickets. Proceeds will go to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society.

If you want two lower-bowl Canucks tickets for this Saturday, contact Rebecca or drop in at Third Tuesday tomorrow and make a bid for a good time and a good cause :)

-k.s.

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Followup: Rebecca’s Food Drive was a great success with over 12 boxes and some bags of food items donated, and $245 raised in cash for the Food Bank.

Hello folks,

Today is Blog Action Day, which is an international campaign to unite blogs to discuss a single important concept. Today, October 15th, over 11,000 blogs around the world are posting about BAD08 and the topic is poverty.

I’d like to bring your attention to a great initiative that has been taking place for the last year bringing free, wholesome meals to the individuals living in poverty in the Downtown Eastside. Guru Nanak’s Free Kitchen, which was not always known by that name but has been in existence almost two years, is non-political non-profit network of volunteers that comprises of individuals from all communities, faiths, age groups and regions of the Lower Mainland.

Using the Life Skills Center on East Cordova Street as the “kitchen,” the volunteers bring hot meals and refreshing beverages from the Sikh gurdwara and serve them in a safe, warm, indoors open room to all indiscriminately. In addition, clothing is also collected from the community, which is even more important this winter as the weather becomes wetter and colder. This project has been taking place two days a month, every month since the summer of 2007 and once every few months prior to that.

The Sikh Community is celebrating 300 Years since the ascension to the throne of “Guru” (enlightener) of the current and everlasting spiritual leader of Sikhs, Guru Granth Sahib. In honour of this occasion and in direct correlation with the Sikh teachings of universal love and service of humanity, the next free kitchen event will be a full week long, from November 11th through 15th (Tuesday through Saturday).

This event has been very well received by the local community in Vancouver and many people living in poverty have shown the same love and appreciation with which the volunteers take part in their service. Unfortunately, this is only one piece of the solution to helping the poor in Vancouver and hopefully we can all continue to contribute through our goodwill, personal commitment, dedication, financial contribution, and prayers.

For more information and to volunteer, visit Guru Nanak’s Free Kitchen website. They don’t accept any financial donations but they are always accepting contributions of specific food and clothing items (check the website for details).

Update: The Free Kitchen volunteers are also taking part in the Homeless Action Week and serving food to approximately 200 people on Thursday 16 Oct. Anybody that wishes to help out can come out to the Holy Trinity Cathedral, 514 Carnarvon Street, New Westminster, where we are serving food from 11.00am to 1.00pm.

An interesting new innovation from Xerox called the “erasable paper” will allow you to print off those figures for the meeting with management, or those speakers notes for your presentation, and literally “leave them to erase” over the next 24 hours. The patented technology, still in development, works such that the image printed on paper fades naturally over time with exposure to light, or quickly with exposure to heat. Many practical uses for this in offices where people print out documents for temporary use, as long as the “erasing” method can be made easy and efficient.